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November 15, 2007
Blogging for a Cure: Featuring Yangsook Choi
If you come to my library and ask me for a book about school, I will give you The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi. If you come to my library and ask me for a book about being nice to people, I will give you The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi. If you come to my library and ask me for a multicultural book (a phrase I dislike, although I don’t normally mention that to patrons who ask for multicultural books), I will give you The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi.
I freaking love The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi.
When I emailed Jules to ask if I could feature Yangsook Choi as part of the Blogging for a Cure effort to promote the Robert’s Snow fundraiser to benefit the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, I figured there would be NO WAY someone hadn’t already asked, because that’s how good Yangsook Choi is—but I lucked out big time. And when I emailed Yangsook to ask her for a few words for my post, she couldn’t have been nicer. In response to my question about how she got involved in Robert’s Snow, she told me that when Grace Lin first asked her to be a part of it a few years ago, “I was more than happy to offer my skill in such a unique, creative and cooperative program!” Her own father had been diagnosed with stomach cancer a couple years before, and Yangsook says, “Although we thought he would die, somehow he recovered. He said later that he got strengthened when my brother had a baby son. Seeing his very first grandson's smile gave him a purpose to go on.”
Here is her snowflake:
I especially love the contrast between the snowflake shape and the warm colors and scene she’s created. As a whole, it speaks of contentment.
I like contentment.
You can bid on Yangsook’s “Peach Heaven” in Auction 1 of Robert’s Snow from November 19-23.
Finally, I’d like to leave you with something else Yangsook had to say: “I felt like everyone who’s involved in Robert’s Snow in any way was like a family to me.” Bravo, Yangsoook. And another bravo to my friends in the blogosphere who have been rocking this effort along. Every time I look at all the snowflakes and the posts, I get misty. It’s a beautiful thing.
Posted by adrienne at November 15, 2007 12:09 AM
Comments
That's lovely. I'm looking for The Name Jar tomorrow at the library, when I have to pick up my holds or...they disappear. Thanks for the recommendation, Adrienne. From perusing her web site, I want to get Earthquake, by Milly Lee, too.
Posted by: Susan T. at November 14, 2007 11:14 PM
Mmm. Peaches. Lovely flake, lovely post. Thank you!
Posted by: LindaBudz at November 15, 2007 07:51 AM
Brown and peach are such pretty colors together, and I too LOVE that book!
I'm also not fond of the phrase 'multicultural books' necessarily, but I use it (when I blog, anyway, I'm not a librarian) because it's what people identify... and "books that portray minorities living normal lives" is a bit long. What do you call them?
Posted by: TadMack at November 15, 2007 08:48 AM
Yep, contentment's good...
So are peaches.
Posted by: Liz Garton Scanlon at November 15, 2007 09:43 AM
Man, that's a great snowflake.
I'm going to go look for The Name Jar now, too.
Thanks, Adrienne. As for all the bloggers who have rocked this thing, I say WORD. I know it's been snowflakes all over the place for over a month and maybe some people are burnt out, for all I know, but I also think it's been so great to read about and so fun to see all the snowflakes and so awesome how everyone joined together to -- we hope -- raise more money for cancer research.
Posted by: Jules at November 15, 2007 01:56 PM
Just put it on hold at my local library. Wahoo!
Posted by: Jules at November 15, 2007 02:38 PM
I LOVE peaches, and I'm always sad that their season is so short. Hey, if I can get this snowflake, I could be happy year-round, right?
Thanks for The Name Jar recommendation,too. Obviously, if Adrienne says it's a "must read," then I must read.
Posted by: Sara at November 15, 2007 07:12 PM
TadMack, You've got a point. I guess what gets to me is that people come in asking for "multicultural books" in the bad way, where they haven't really thought about what that means to them or the world in general. You see this mostly with adults--teachers, library school students, education students--and, I don't know, so often when I start asking them questions to try to focus in on what they want, what I learn is that they're looking for something to just kind of fill a slot, do what they have to do, move on. That seems so against what I think something called "multicultural" should be about, you know? I like to say things like, "books about immigrants" or "about African-Americans" or "about second-generation Americans" or "about people who live in other countries." I know I'm just kind of getting caught up in semantics, and, obviously, I use "multicultural" sometimes myself. I always fret over it, though.
I am so excited that I've convinced people to look up The Name Jar!!! I had to buy a second copy for WPL a couple years ago because I got annoyed at how often I'd want to recommend it to someone and it was checked out because I'd recently recommended it to someone else.
Jules, You are visiting everyone every day and commenting and posting and still reviewing and doing interviews and, like, raising kids. Seriously, there isn't enough coffee. You always impress me, but we are going to have to declare a holiday for you or something.
Sara, Our peach season was ridiculously short here in WNY this year (in fact, it pretty much ended while we were all in Chicago), and I'm still not over it. You're right that this snowflake could offer some consolation. I want to bid on many snowflakes, badly. I think my house payment is going to have something to say about that, though.
Posted by: adrienne at November 15, 2007 10:21 PM
I totally take your point btw on this -- specific is always better than just "random minority book to fulfill requirement."
Don't worry, I obsess over semantics, too. ;)
Posted by: TadMack at November 18, 2007 08:08 AM